Jana Sevcikova earned a degree in documentary filmmaking from FAMU, the Film Academy in Prague. Her graduation film was a documentary about the Ceaucescu regime. Since then, she has been awarded several grants from the Czech Ministry of Culture and enjoyed much success at film festivals around the world. JAKUB won the Prix De jury des Universites and the Prix de la Direction at Strasbourg, plus the Filmkaja Award for Best Documentary at the Uppsala, Sweden Film Festival.
JAKUB, by the Czech filmmaker Jana Sevikova, presents an extensive ethnographical-sociological study of the life of the Ruthenians, filmed in the Maramuresh mountains in the north of Romania and in the former Sudetenland in Western Bohemia. The film was made over a period of five years during the time of both totalitarian regimes and was completed in 1992 after the…